Pilot shares insight into what may have caused deadly plane crash in eastern Arizona
New insight has been revealed Wednesday regarding the type of conditions that pilots might have faced before their plane crashed in Navajo country
By Jason McNabb
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ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — New insight has been revealed Wednesday regarding the type of conditions that pilots might have faced before their plane crashed in Navajo country, killing all four people on-board.
Robert Katz is a local commercial pilot and flight instructor with over 40 years of experience who is trying to figure out what happened in Tuesday’s deadly plane crash that originated in Albuquerque.
Katz spoke with KOAT about what he believes may have been contributing factors.
“There’s nothing jumping out at me as a pilot suggesting anything was wrong with this flight,” said Katz.
A small medical transport plane, operated by CSI Aviation, crashed in eastern Arizona at the Chinle airport, leaving four people dead.
The crash and fire happened around 1 p.m. in the afternoon on its way to pick up a patient from a hospital.
All of the information Katz is basing his personal opinion on about the crash is from FlightAware, a publicly available online flight tracking portal, as well as his professional experience as a pilot.
“From all appearances based on FlightAware, everything appears normal,” said Katz.
The plane was a Beechcraft King Air 300, a small propeller powered plane with two engines.
Katz calls the plane reliable.
“I have every reason to believe this air ambulance company was in good standing, pilots were qualified,” said Katz.
Based on the information, Katz thinks weather could have played a factor, including high temperatures and crosswinds.
“[It was] more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which is going to make the atmosphere very thin, and contribute to a condition known as or aggravate a condition known as density altitude,” said Katz.
He also thinks the size of the airport, compared to the size of the plane, may also have contributed.
“This airport itself is a challenge to get in and out of, because looking at the details of the airport, we can see that the runway is 6,902 feet by 60 feet wide. That’s very narrow as runways go,” said Katz.
He adds the high temperatures may have also softened the asphalt runway, making it harder to land on.
As of now, a preliminary report from the FAA says the plane crashed upon landing on runway E6 in Chinle for “unknown reasons.”
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